The National Health Service is facing a 'devastating' winter, with a stark new report warning that patients will be forced to endure hours on trolleys in hospital corridors and even storage rooms due to severe capacity shortages.
Corridor Care and Soaring Waits Signal National Emergency
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has issued a damning assessment, accusing the government of acting with 'insufficient urgency' to address the looming crisis. Nursing leaders are alarmed that hospital bed capacity has consistently failed to keep pace with demand, forcing staff to conduct intimate examinations in public areas and leave patients in non-clinical spaces like cupboards and offices without access to emergency oxygen.
Professor Nicola Ranger, the RCN's General Secretary, stated bluntly: 'Yet again this winter, nursing staff have been set up to fail and patients set up to suffer.'
New analysis by the RCN reveals the shocking scale of the problem. Trolley waits of 12 hours or more have surged by 90 times in just six years. Between July and September 2019, 1,281 patients waited this long for a bed. By the same period this year, that number had exploded to 116,141 – an 11% increase from 2024.
Compounding the issue, the number of available beds has fallen by 2% (382 beds) year-on-year, which the RCN says is 'laying the ground for the situation to worsen'. Furthermore, 'bed-blocking' is escalating, with an average of 13,117 beds occupied daily in October by patients medically fit for discharge – a 6% annual rise.
Pre-Christmas Junior Doctors Strike to Heap on Pressure
This dire warning arrives just a day after the British Medical Association (BMA) confirmed its junior doctors will stage a five-day walkout from 7am on December 17, in a move branded 'totally reckless' by NHS England chief executive Sir Jim Mackey.
The union is pursuing a 26% pay rise, an action described by health leaders as an 'inflammatory act' that will place immense strain on the NHS during its busiest period. Sir Jim criticised the timing, stating it was 'clearly designed to maximise disruption' as flu cases surge.
He added: 'The BMA Resident Doctors Committee absolutely know it will take a monumental effort to keep patients safe this time, which makes this a shameful decision.' Each five-day strike is estimated to cost the NHS approximately £300 million in lost activity and overtime.
Dr Jack Fletcher, chairman of the BMA's junior doctors committee, defended the action, stating the Government had failed to present a 'credible plan' on pay and training places.
System-Wide Failures and a Plea for Transparency
The crisis extends beyond A&E. The RCN report highlights a 'shocking rise' in patients leaving emergency departments without treatment. From July to September 2019, the figure was 99,937. This year, it soared by 220% to over 320,000, indicating growing public frustration with lengthy waits.
A senior nurse from an emergency department in South West England provided a harrowing firsthand account: 'The 12 hour-plus delays are inevitable... It’s heart wrenching having patients sat in chairs in corridors as there are not enough beds, especially the elderly and vulnerable.'
Professor Ranger has called for urgent government action and transparency: 'Ministers must stop delaying publishing the data on just how widespread corridor care is. Patients deserve transparency over care standards.'
In response, a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: 'No one should receive care in a corridor in a chair or trolley – it is unacceptable and undignified.' They outlined a winter plan including a £450 million investment for urgent care, ambulance upgrades, and mental health crisis centres, asserting: 'Together, we can ensure the NHS is there when you need it.'
